The present disclosure relates to techniques for capturing multiple images of a document and accurately extracting information from the images.
The widespread availability of digital cameras and cellular telephones with integrated imaging sensors has led to a significant increase in digital photography and associated software applications that leverage information in the acquired images. For example, after a user captures an image of a document (such as a financial document) using a digital camera or a cellular telephone (which are each sometimes referred to as an ‘electronic device’), a software application executing on the electronic device (such as a financial software application) can extract information from the image using optical character recognition. Then, at least in principle, the financial software application can use the extracted information to populate fields in a form or to perform a financial calculation.
However, in practice, the ability to extract useful information from an image (especially for use with a software application) is often restricted by the image quality. For example, depending on the image quality, errors may occur when extracting the information using optical character recognition. These errors can make it more difficult, if not impossible, for a software application (such as the financial software application) to subsequently use the extracted information.
As a consequence, after acquiring an image, the user may need to perform post-acquisition operations, such as: editing the image to crop the area of interest; correcting any errors that occurred in the extracted information; and, if the image is blurry or the area of interest was not captured, repeating the image-capture and/or the post-acquisition operations one or more times. Performing the image-capture and/or the post-acquisition operations once, let alone multiple times, is time-consuming and may consequently limit the willingness of users to acquire images or to use software applications that leverage the information in images.